[Buddabird]

My girls and I made it out to Braidwood on Saturday around 2. Very few folks went out for the opener (at least on the south side). In about an hour, we caught one bluegill, and 2 cats. The girls are 3 and 4, so we did not venture onto the rip rap, just stayed by the boat launch. The lake was whipped up into a fury on Saturday. A few boaters had a heck of a time trailering their boats.
Jokingly, I held out the bluegill and asked Emily ( 4 )if she wanted to kiss it, and surprisingly, she gave it a big smooch. Thats my girl.

The DNR was out picking up trash left by some inconsiderate litterbugs, and witnessed us catching Mr Whiskers. He said many boaters he had spoken to were not doing so well. He did mention that after last years fish kill, the DNR did electroshocking, and found that there are still lots of trophies swimming around.
My little Emily 'Houston'. When the girls became more interested in throwing rocks into the water than fishing, we left.

 

[truce]

I fished from 8:30am to 5:00pm. lots of fish and lots of fun, thanks for providing me the directions to the hot side. I thouhg braidwood would be just another bare naked perched lake, without any scenery, but lots of fish. But this was like heaven, I was amazed. I love this place, and thats where I will be fishing most of the time in future. Got lots of cats, have no clue why were they all between 8" to 10", what was I doing wrong which was spooking bigger cats? (used nightcrawler for cats)...
caught some small and large mouths again 80 to 14 inch range, nothing big, was using rapalas for them?
The whole day was fun, and this is the first time somebody checked my license(twice, once in the morning and then in the afternoon) :smile:

 

[Buddabird]

Heideke and Lasalle are just big bowls of rock, water and fish. Braidwood has islands, weedbeds, underwater rock bars, etc. all waiting to eat someones prop. I'm glad you did well on the hot side. I have found that to catch decent size cats, you need to supersize your baits, and fish the edges of the deep holes from a boat. You can ID these holes with the Outdoor Notebook Braidwood map. I have found the O.N. map more accurate than the fishing hot spots map. While you are down there, be sure to patronize the good folks at the local bait shops. Also, the Polk a Dot has awesome burgers and fries (not an advertisement, just a reccomendation). I have also had better luck with the bigger bass by using Excalibur topwaters, or large shiners. The DNR did not even ask me for my license, just how I was doing, even though I had just purchased 48 bucks worth of licenses from the DNR website. (Sportsmans, Trout, Salmon, Habitat, waterfowl). OUCH !!